So much had I
enjoyed Venom’s previous album, “Fallen Angels”, that it got listed in my ‘Staff
Poll’ of 2011 in this publication. “From The Very Depths” is more in-your-face
than its predecessor and I dare say Venom are on a winning streak.
Wherever you care to look, the album is bursting with
instant classics.....’Evil Law’, ‘Long
Haired Punks’ and ‘Crucified’ are 3 exceptional specimens which come to mind.
The sound is gruff and the attitude very Punkish, in fact it bears distinct
parallels with Motörhead. Production-wise “From The Very Depths”
is in a different league from Venom’s first full-length
forays around 30 years ago
and the level of musicianship way more eloquent than the band’s early anarchic
days. And yet music’s demeanour is unmistakably Venom, a fact doubtlessly
related to the identity of the man at the band’s helm: Cronos. Indeed the
sneering attitude of Conrad ‘Cronus’ Lant feels as authentic as ever.
‘Mephistopheles’ has some incredibly tight-sounding bass and rhythm guitars.
‘Crucified’ has riffs as heavy as a steamroller testing the laws of gravity
above your head. ‘Smoke’ has an industrial feel to it...which I liked. ‘Long
Haired Punks’ is one of the best songs ever to come from the band. Album closer
‘Rise’ is a rallying call to the ‘Legions’ of Venom fans and has you craving for
more. Sure, if you scrutinise this full-length with a magnifying glass you’re
bound to find imperfections but as an assembled product “From The Very Depths”
is as strong an album as you can hope for.
As a long-time
Venom fan, I couldn’t be happier.
See the
lyric-video of ‘Long Haired Punks’:
